HOWDY, MY NAME IS BILL STRONG, I'LL BE YOUR "24 HOUR MAN", ROUTING YOU INTO THE PAST TO SEE WHAT THE CIRCUS WAS IN DAYS GONE BY. IF YOU'RE LIKE ME, AND MISS WHAT IT USED TO BE, THEN COME ON ALONG AS WE GO DOWN THE ROAD FOLLOWING THE ARROWS BACKWARDS, TO "YESTERDAY'S TOWNS"!
IF YOU HAVE CIRCUS RELATED PICTURES YOU WOULD LIKE POSTED, SEND THEM TO,,,,yesterday1@verizon.net,,,,AND WE WILL TRY TO FIT THEM IN. "24 HOUR MAN" WILL HAVE THE FINAL DECISION ON POSTING.

About Me

Three years at CWM made me a real traditionalist, and I keep remembering Bob Parkinson saying, "I want the people to see what the circus used to be, not what it is today. That's what this site is about!

Monday, April 07, 2008

GOOD MEMORIES: "SAVE MONEY WITH JOHNNY"

I ran across this ad in a 1970 Organ Magazine, if there was ever a true "Showman's Friend", Johnny Canole was him.

Trudy & I bought our first trailer,(below) from Johnny, a brand new 1963, 27' Yellowstone, for $2750.00, a low down payment, low bank interest, & you made payments for 6 months, & no payments for 6 months. In other words you only made payments during the season, and as I remember we didn't even have to pay the interest in the Winter.

Our car was a 1959 Oldsmobile, Super 88, 4 door Hard Top, with a 4 speed Hydromatic Transmission, when you shifted into "Super" it sounded like a Jet Plane.I came up behind an act once who was trying to beat me to the next lot about 10 miles ahead of us, I clocked him at 80 mph dropped the gearshift into Super & went around him like he was sittin' still, he thought his motor went off & got out to see what was wrong.

11 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Boy, The Golden days ---- You can't beat the performance of the cars in that era. I loved the Crome and the head Ornaments on the hood. Sure miss that now-a-day. (All Plastic --- Phooey on that) Hope you are feeling better. Sometimes OLD MEMORIES can perk you up.

I REMBER ON THE GIL GRAY SHOW IT WAS LIKE THEY WAVED THE GREEN FLAG AFTER THE SHOW WAS LOADED. MAX CRAIG WAS ALWAYS THE LAST ONE TO LEAVE AND ALWAYS THE FRIST ONE ON THE LOT I HEARD. I WAS NEVER ABLE TO SEE THE CHECKERD FLAG AS I WAS WITH ED MARTIAN IN THE ELEPHANT TRUCK OR BOBBY IN THE CAMEL TRUCK. THOSE OLD'S WOULD FLY

Billy, Welcome back, hope you are feeling well. 6 months on, 6 months off? Is that one of those legendary full season routes I have always heard about? I think I had the same season in 1976, with the exception of the Texas dates. Wade Burck

That Olds was "A man's " car -- I had a couple Pontiac s -- those cars of ours Bill , could take on a steam engine , head on ,and you could walk away from the crash -- of course , I never really took on a steam engine , -- but we could have , right Bill ??

Word of WARNING, I got an email last night telling me I had a comment,from a "kijr" or something like that. It said, to read, click "here", well stupid me, I clicked it. Virus warnings went off from here to Dallas, I think I got through it clean but watch out for it.

Had a call from Jackie Wong last night, he was also a member of the Gil Gray Olds club, there were 13, '59 Oldsmobiles on the show.All of the show trucks were GMC's with the same Hydromatic Transmission as the Oldsmobiles, until the show mechanic, Walter Rice convinced Gil to change them to standard Transmissions. Then the trouble started, burned out clutches, blown transmissions, breakdowns every jump.

we may never really know the extent of the role johnny canole played in keeping this business going. how many shows might have never moved without his help, how many acts may not have moved without his help. i never heard anything bad about him, just how much he helped everyone. a true angel -- someone this business could really use right now!